NEWPORT County AFC manager Warren Feeney praised his side after they battled their way to a vital victory on the sand at Rodney Parade.

Scott Boden’s 86th-minute winner, his fifth goal in four games, saw off Mansfield Town and lifted County eight points clear of the League Two relegation zone.

The Stags were convinced that Boden was offside before he fired home.

But Feeney felt it was a goal that the Exiles deserved after a close encounter played on a pitch covered in sand after taking a battering over recent months.

“It was a massive result for us,” he said. “Mansfield have been on a great run and are really organised but I believe in our players and we do what we’re good at.

“Good teams win 1-0 like the old Arsenal and when I saw the pitch, I suspected there would only be a goal in it.

“We kept plugging away and we deserved the win after creating the better chances. And when you have Scott Boden in this sort of form, you know you’ve got a chance.

“We won’t dwell on the decision for the goal,” he added. “I only care about the three points.

“It was always going to be difficult on that pitch because the sand saps the legs. Perhaps the lads could have brought their buckets and spades.

“But that’s the way it has to be with so many games being played on it.”

Mansfield manager Adam Murray was not a happy man after his side slipped out of the play-off spots.

“It’s definitely offside but it took a deflection off someone so I’m not 100 per cent sure,” said the Stags boss.

“But we didn’t deserve anything out of that game. It was a flat performance and an awful game.

“There was no football played whatsoever. It was a bad day at the office.

“I thought the referee was poor. He didn’t have control of the game from the first minute and he was throwing yellow cards around like sweets.

“And the pitch was horrendous,” he added. “I understand that there’s three teams playing on it and there’s only so much you can do but it’s not fit for a professional level at League Two.

“It was really poor and it turns it into a farce – the ball was bobbling everywhere and it must have been a horrible spectacle.”